Outdoor Project

Our back patio has seen it's share of transformations.  When we moved in, we didn't have Knox and didn't have ANY furniture--inside the house or out.  As you can imagine, our priorities were the living room and dining room...not the backyard.

My in-laws were replacing their backyard furniture and we're going to throw away the old...so we snatched it up.  Sure, it had seen it's share of "use."  But it fit, it looked complete and it bought us time.

The very next summer we started researching ideas for outdoor furniture.  We put in the side patio and outfitted it with Target stuff, so we were eager to update the back patio as well.  We were wandering through Home Depot one night (are we the only nerds that go there just to wander and get ideas???) and found the below Martha Stewart chairs on clearance.  Um...yes, please!  I think we got each chair for around $90 bucks, total steal for the quality!

We love the chairs, and the outdoor rug made it all complete.

After another year of use, and having a love affair with having people over, we realized that seating for only two wasn't going to cut it.  We needed some sort of solution to seat more people without cramping the space completely.

Enter Josh, Stephen's softball buddy.  He casually mentioned one night that he built outdoor benches along the walls of his backyard.  Stephen instantly knew that's what he wanted to do.  After many conversations running through the logistics, we had our plan.  He set off a few weeks ago to grab the cedar materials, as well as the concrete.  We started by inserting the concrete posts...a full three weeks ago.  It's hard when you have 2 hours (during Knox's nap) to do it, and an otherwise full weekend.  We just worked on it when we could...

Then last weekend my sister-in-law Kelly offered to babysit Knox.  We put him down for his nap, worked on the benches, and she came and picked up him right after his nap, giving us an extra few hours to work.

Then she watched him the next morning for us, until he went to sleep.  Hallelujah...that gave us just enough time to finish the entire project.  With help from the neighbor (in the form of ALL of his tools), we did it.  Together.  And we're still happily married.  

This calls for some sort of celebration.

I ran out to Joann's and found this summery outdoor fabric on clearance...I'm fully aware it's seasonal, but it's cheery and I like it.

We still need to fill in the underneath with river rocks, and then put planters next to the windows...but the hard work is finished and we couldn't be more excited.  Oh...and it seats EIGHT.  8.  Loving it!